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The city is keeping the principal of a Bronx high school in place, despite a report’s conclusion that she instructed her assistant principals to give teachers unsatisfactory ratings without ever watching them teach.

For public school teachers, an unsatisfactory rating on their annual observation can mean the beginning of the termination process. For Iris Blige, the principal of the Fordham High School of the Arts, “U” ratings were to be handed out to teachers she wanted to get rid of, regardless of how good they were in their classrooms.

A report by the Office of Special Investigations found that from 2007 to 2009, Blige told several of her assistant principals to give unsatisfactory ratings to half a dozen teachers before those teachers were formally observed. The report, which was completed last August, substantiates the claims of Blige’s current and former employees. Regardless, city officials have decided that Blige will keep her position and will pay a fine of $7,500.

According to the report, assistant principal James O’Toole told investigators that Blige told him to “get rid of” a certain teacher. O’Toole told investigators that he did not follow Blige’s request. (more…)

Hundreds of Bronx teachers turned out on Friday to protest the high school principal they say is responsible for a 70 percent teacher turnover rate. In record time over the weekend, the Bronx division of the United Federation of Teachers produced a video about the event, which it coordinated.

Teachers charge that in the four years since Iris Blige has been principal of Fordham High School for the arts, a small school that opened in 2002, the school has run through nine assistant principals, four business managers, and more than 100 teachers. (This data point is in clear view on a protester’s poster in the video.) Blige replaced the founding principal, Sal Mazzola, who was removed after two years in charge because of poor performance, according to the school’s Insideschools review.

Fordham High School for the Arts' teacher turnover figures from its 2006-2007 state report card

According to the school’s most recent state report card, more than a quarter of all teachers left the school after the 2005-2006 school year, and the previous year the school lost more than half of all relatively new teachers. The UFT says turnover has only accelerated since then, with more than 70 percent of teachers leaving during the 2007-2008 school year.